The following description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
Many electronic devices including flat screen televisions and mobile devices have built-in speakers, and most of the built-in speakers for such electronic devices are down-firing speakers. However, because of their relatively smaller size and location in the back, bottom or side of the device, the speakers of such devices often cannot produce sound waves that transmit only indirectly to the user. Rather, sound waves are directed to objects nearby the electronic devices, and the sometimes tortuous reflected paths can produce decidedly deteriorated sound quality.
Some efforts have been made to improve the sound quality from the down-firing speakers. For example, U.S. Patent Application 2013/0303146A1 to Genoa discloses a sound enhancer coupleable to a portable media. The sound enhancer can redirect sound from a side-mounted or back-mounted speaker of the portable media player towards a user for enhancing the user's audio experience. However, the size of Genoa's sound enhancer is limited to the length or width of the speaker, and the use is therefore limited to many portable electronic devices.
Others have made efforts to enhance the sound emitted from device speakers. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,731,219 to Weiss discloses a reflector for use with an electronic device having a loudspeaker. The reflector of Weiss has a flat portion located to be adjacent a surface of the electronic device, and a concave portion adjacent to the flat portion and presenting a concave surface to the loudspeaker. However, similar to Genoa, the size of this reflector is also generally limited to a size of the speaker. Further, the direction of sound reflection cannot be adjusted based on the user's needs.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,257,365 to Hulsebus III discloses a speaker system that includes a cone reflector connected to a speaker driver. The cone reflector has at least one included angle used to reflect sound in a desired pattern in the horizontal and vertical planes. The reflecting surface can be flat, concave, or in combination of multiple angle flat surfaces. The reflector can be attached to the speaker, or can be free-standing. However, due to its cone-shape, the Hulsebus reflector is not suitable for use with many televisions, and in particular with flat screen TVs.
U.S. Patent Application 2012/0241247A1 to Choe discloses audio enhancer for very small devices, e.g., smart phones and smart tablets, where the reflector portion can be flat or curved. This audio enhancer can be attachable and detachable to an audio producing device.
U.S. Patent Application 2015/0131836A1 to Hoshikawa discloses a sound guiding device for an electronic device with a rear-facing speakers. In Hoshikawa, the sound guiding device is attached to a case of mobile terminal device such that a curved portion of the device receives sounds from the rear-facing speaker and redirects the sounds toward the front of the device.
Interestingly, none of the above discloses a sound reflector or a sound redirective device for flat screen TVs that properly accommodates different positioning of the speaker(s). Thus, there is still a need for a system that can effectively redirect the sound from the built-in speaker of a flat screen TV, regardless of the front to back location of the speaker(s).